Month: December 2023

She’d held on through the years, regardless of stress or pressures, to ensure some kind of stability for her children to push off from.

At this point, perhaps, her breaking down and fragmenting was long overdue.

“I know that gargoyles don’t migrate – and that you are by nature as a species, categorically stubborn. But I also sense that you have always craved something more than this mere existence has provided,” she coaxed.

Sometimes a wound must be cauterized – and then ignored – to be given space and time to heal.

What defined her could not be as yet defined.

She had fought against the conclusion that she should abstain from men.

She was more dynamic and hungry than he was.

Therefore, the kids and she were likely destined to fly the nest eventually, anyway.

She had not experienced a man wanting her for the “right” reasons.

She surmised it was probably impracticle for her to be in a relationship now – and possibly, ever.

Her life kept shifting and rearranging along some evolving behind-the-scenes course, and she was required to be at its helm.

“I had thought I could forgive him anything.”

Even though he eventually tried to reconcile, she could not forgive him for what their children had already endured, and for what they would still have to go through.

“He took it all away from me; from us; from our children.

Because he was afraid to redefine what it meant to be free.

Because he did not truly see me.

For if he had, he would have known that any wrong could have been made to be right between us.

And he would have reached out to embrace life – rather then letting hope whither and diminish.”

It could be expected that I would extoll its virtues.

But having not read much for years, finding old friends in book form means facing memories of loss.

For I once had a life I loved, full of books and the promise of better tomorrows.

Back when I believed in love’s power to overcome anything.

But it is the human spirit that must remain resilient.